The allure of the Auburn coaching job is obvious any Saturday you walk into Jordan-Hare Stadium.
There's boundless energy, relentless support and one of the most electric environments anywhere in the sport. With its resources, tradition and a recent national championship (2010), Auburn is one of the dozen jobs in college football where winning a title is realistically attainable.
That same undying love for Auburn football that defines the school has also undercut it time and again. Auburn's reputation for meddling boosters, heavy-handed trustees and the assorted power vacuums and coups they've spawned has once again led to a bottoming out on the field.
Bryan Harsin's tenure, which ended predictably and unceremoniously on Monday, will long be remembered as the quintessential example of Auburn's blind ambition undercutting Auburn's realities.
After a middling 6-7 first season in 2021, Auburn launched a ham-handed and unsuccessful investigation into Harsin. It was baseless, and the cringey execution basically doubled as a vote of no-confidence for his tenure. It turned both this season's 3-5 tire fire on the field and a recruiting class that's last among the SEC in 2023 into inevitabilities.
The same day Auburn ended everyone's misery by sending Harsin out of town with a $15.5 million buyout, they brought in a new athletic director. The hiring of John Cohen from Mississippi State will predictably be hailed as a new era, one free of meddling boosters and a sign of a new era under Auburn president Chris Roberts. Is it believable?